Monday, October 27, 2008

In the last few days Hannah has taken a lot of initiative towards improving her walking skills. She has been balancing much better and when she took a few steps and fell, she would get back up and take a few more steps.

Well today she figured the whole thing out and seems to like walking a little better than crawling! That may be due to our relentless cheering after she makes it from point A to point B, but she is excited nonetheless.

Tonight she walked a good 20 feet without falling. I was so proud. And she was just walking to the coffee table, instead of coming to Matt or I. She was grinning ear to ear when she reached the table and of course I called everyone to tell them of her newest accomplishment :)

She then went through our living room into the kitchen which by her path is another 30 feet or so. She fell numerous times, but got right back up to walk some more.

The only problem is, my little Leah will go speeding past her on all fours and get right in Hannah's projected path inevitable causing Hannah to trip. Its as if Leah is saying "I am so much faster than you! Why should I walk when I can crawl???"

The girls spent the night with Matt's parents on Friday so we could have a date night (YAY) so they decided to take them to a place called "Sykes" in Homewood to buy their first pair of shoes.

I have been anti shoes since they were born, but they are on the move now and since it is getting colder, I think the barefooted look may bring about some unwanted attention. This place was amazing. They have so many cute little shoes. And they were so busy that we had to take a number!

They measured the girls feet and Hannah is a 4.5 extra-extra wide and Leah is a 3.5 extra-extra wide. Sad I know. They will grow out of it! Anyway, we decided on these little flexible white tennis shoes so they could get better at walking. And of course we also had to get a pair of brown suede mary-jane type shoes for their dressier outfits. Yes I know they are only a year old, but they have to be coordinated on their outings!

Hannah was pretty proud of her shoes, and kept kicking her feet or stomping the ground with a big smile on her face. Leah likes to try to take them off, which hasnt gotten better as she has gotten more used to them.

The good thing is, the shoes make Leah a little taller, so she can now ride her "bounce and spin zebra" that she is normally about a cm too short for. She was VERY excited.

The shoes make the girls look so much older. I dont know why, but they do. They look like little toddlers. Speaking of which, we turned the carseats around yesterday so now when I look back I see these little girls with pig tails and tennis shoes looking back at me. I say it all the time, but they grow up so fast!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

For as long as I have thought about having kids I have wanted a little girl in ponytails, and tonight I got it. I honestly did not think their hair was long enough. I got Hannah's hair up in one pigtail yesterday, so today I thought I would try two. Especially since I am having a hard time figuring out what to do with Hannah's hair, since it is at that 'shaggy, if she were a boy she would need a haircut but she is a girl so what do you do with that mop' phase. :)

Leah was not as easy since her hair is so much finer and shorter, and I dont think she is quite ready to pull of that look. :) But Hannah looked adorable so I had to take pictures. It's KILLING me at how fast they are growing up. I mean, if I can pull their hair up they just don't look like babies then! At least they are wearing their footed pajamas in these pics. :)

Neither girl was willing to pose for the camera, and Matt was playing with the settings, so this is the best we got.

Monday, October 20, 2008

I am always looking for new recipes - but I like the ones other people have TRIED. So I decided to start one of these recipe club blogs. I'd love for anyone to be a contributor so let me know if you would like to add your weekly recipe to the blog! The more recipes the better.

just email me at allysonmccay@gmail.com so I know your email address and Ill add you :)

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Today we had a wonderfully busy day. Matt and I actually got to hang out with each other and the girls, plus the fam almost all day! It was nice to spend time together since Matt and I have barely seen each other or our kids these past two weeks.

Grin (as Walker calls Matts dad - and we are trying to make him a "dandy" but I feel like the first grandchild always names the grandparents, so I guess we have to adopt "Grin" as his name) loves trains and Walker shares his passion tenfold. So Gammy and Grin wanted to take us all on the train in Calera to the pumpkin patch. I was a little nervous because it was right when the girls normally nap but they ended up sleeping in a little so they did great.

So we got on the train and Leah became her usual flirtation self, and was completely enamored with the conductor. He was really great with her, and Leahs affections were sealed when he pulled out his conductor's watch and let her play with it. Anytime he walked by she just stared up at him. She knows she is cute. It is going to be problematic I feel.

Hannah sat in Daddys lap most of the time, and really loved looking out the window as the train moved. Of course their cousins were wonderful - I mean, they were on a TRAIN! (It is true what they say about boys and their trains and apparently they do not grow out of it - ex, Matt and his dad...)

When we arrived at the pumpkin patch we decided to go on the hay ride first. The girls were getting tired but enjoyed the short trip behind the tractor. I even got some snuggles from my Leah as she was lulled by the movement. These snuggles are rare and are deeply treasured.

They enjoyed going from pumpkin to pumpkin as they crawled around in the grass. The boys were running around picking out their pumpkins, since Walker was going to get a BIG pumpkin for Gammy. (At first he was planning on getting a big one for Mommy, but Gammy's often replace Mommy's...)

We all enjoyed the cool morning outdoors and I am glad I got some cute pictures. The train ride back was free of any tantrums, despite my earlier concerns for a lack of a nap, and we all even got to go to Cracker Barrel for lunch after! All the kids were perfect.

We went home and the girls took a LITTLE nap and then we were back out to go to dinner with the extended family to celebrate Matt's cousins return from Korea (he is in the army) and Matt's granddad's birthday. It was a VERY long day but the girls did very well and went to bed right when we got home.

On a side note, Kody is back home. He apparently got into some toxin though we do not know what exactly it was. Most likely a bug or spider or something, but his liver levels were not good. So he is on some meds to help his liver function and on a special diet for a few days. But at least he is home. And we had a little scare with Millie last night. Right after I posted my blog last night Laura ran upstairs and told me to come down fast and look at Millie. Poor thing's eyes were swollen shut and her snout was huge. She was a lot more snorty than normal (she is a boston terrier). We called our vet and he told me I did exactly what he would have recommended (1.5 pills benadryl) every 4 hours. She probably got bitten by a spider and it was completely unrelated to all the stuff she and Kody dealt with earlier. What are the odds? Anyway, everyone seems to be better now. :)

Friday, October 17, 2008

I know I have been talking a lot about how much I am working lately, but I have not mentioned how much Matt has been working. Poor guy has had all these deadlines and has been very stressed about making them. So most nights after the girls go down he stays up and works.

This week one of the nurses I work with was out of town, leaving only 2 of us to do all of Kirklin's cases. And of course this was the week Matts deadlines were due. He told me Monday that he would be working until at least 10 Monday through Wednesday.

So I did what I always do and called Matts parents to see if they could help out in case I ended up working late. They had the flu! My parents are out of town. My sister had plans most of the week. I was stressing out.

Luckily Monday and Tuesday ended up being fine. I was home from work by 5:45 and was able to relieve my sister. Wednesday I was on call and Laura was nice enough to change her plans to watch the girls a little late. My case ended up being 14 hours long and a "little late" was 3:30am. Matt did not even come home from work Wed night and worked until his client meeting was over on Thurs. I had to get up and go back to work at 7:30, so I got 3 hours of sleep.

When I got home yesterday (thurs) I was exhausted. And of course so was Matthew. We got the girls down and we got in bed at 10:00. (There was a lot to do after being gone for 48 hours). We were excited to settle down in bed and get a good nights rest.

Unfortunately Kody (our lab mutt) was sick ALL NIGHT LONG. Poor thing is really really sick. He was throwing up all night, so we were in turn up all night cleaning it up. He was very restless and kept jumping on the bed. He threw up on our blanket first, so that was thrown off the bed. And then later we had to do a full fledge 3am sheet change. (He knows he is not allowed on the bed, but also knows when we are in a deep sleep and wont do anything if he sneaks in between us.)

So both Matt and I got up this morning exhausted again. I went to work and then had to take Kody to the vet because he was sick all day as well. I took Millie too because she threw up last night also, but it was only one time. Millie is now home, but Kody has to stay overnight. They did some blood work but it was not back at the time Matt picked up Millie. So I may know something in the morning. Kody is severely dehydrated and has a lot of stomach tenderness. They gave him an IV and stomach settler and hope to get to the bottome of this. I at least got him in the "luxury room" at the vet so he is not bombarded with a lot of other dogs and has a little bed to sleep in. During business hours I can even look in on him on the computer. Yes I know I am pathetic.

I have no idea what he could have gotten into but I am glad I took him since he is a lot sicker than I thought. Pray that he gets better quickly and he did not eat something (like a poisoned mouse) that could be toxic.

This has been a not so good week. I really hate to complain because it could always be worse so lets just say this is me just speaking of our weekly events with the outlook that tomorrow is a new day.

On that note, I am ready for this day to be over and climb into my (clean) sheets. I am VERY tired and we have a big day planned tomorrow.

Leah has become OBSESSED with climbing in chairs. They have these little wooden chairs that go with a little table and she will climb in and out of those for hours. She is as content as can be if you let her sit in her chair and bring toys to her. (pitiful I know). The problem with these chairs is they are actually difficult to climb in and out of and the tend to tip over easily. If I try to take it away while she sees me she goes into hysterics. Also, if I just lay the chair on its back so she cant sit in it anymore, she also goes into a full blown tantrum. I have never seen anything like it.

So what do I do? I went to Target and found some soft chairs for my girls. They are so happy with them! Again, they are climbing in and out of them relentlessly but seem to have no problems falling out of them and getting right back in!

The climbing in and out of things is also a great joy. They like to pull out the bottom drawer of the chest that is in the playroom and then sit in it. It cannot hold them though so I had to come up with another idea. The laundry basket is not only great for holding laundry, but also for letting 2 babies lounge in.

I think the climbing is their new phase. Because we have these new chairs and I have temporarily hidden the other ones, they can now climb on top of their table! And today I caught Leah climbing out of her HIGH CHAIR! they have never tried to get out of it and so I have never strapped them in. But today I turned around for a SECOND while they were having a snack and the next second Leah was on top of her tray leaning over looking at our dog. Of course I freaked out which freaked her out, but I rescued her safely. Looks like she will be buckled up from now on!

Here are some pics. Yes I know it looks like they never get out of these pajamas but lately with my work schedule the only time I have been seeing them is after their baths when they are in their PJs. They are dressed sometimes too!

Matt's 26th birthday was last Friday, Oct. 10th. We had not made plans (which was good) because my work schedule lately has been unpredictable to say the least. Of course I ended up working late, getting home around 10:30. Matt was pretty disappointed.

Last year the girls were only a week old on Matt's birthday, and we were in that groggy state from having 2 newborns. In fact, our main memory for his birthday last year was the lovely present Hannah gave him.

As Matt was holding her (he was laying in bed without his shirt on), Hannah threw up all over him. This was a common occurrence back then since she had such awful refux. The kicker was, when he got up in a slightly frantic state to clean up the entire regurgitated bottle that was now on his chest, he realized his shorts were soaked. Hannah had also had a complete blow out and he was covered in poop. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY say Hannah!

So this year I think he was hoping for something a little different. He had taken off half a day to spend time with the girls and me. He was going to take them out to lunch. Unfortunately I did not even think about it that morning and took the van which has the carseats, so he was stuck at home.

It was kind of sad too because I did early case that day in an attempt to get off early. And I did not get home until about 2am the night before, and then got up at 5, so at least it can be said that I tried!

We decided that we would pretend his birthday was Sunday, and the whole family went to Sumo to celebrate. It was a wonderful dinner. Walker and Eli went and it was their first time at a Japanese restaurant and they were adorable to watch. (If you know Matt, you know that it was NOT the girls first time at a Japanese restaurant).

We took home some birthday cake and the girls enjoyed some the next day. It had blue icing and they were a mess. I had to take some pictures of them in the tub after they covered themselves in icing.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

I have said it before, but I love the playroom. Granted, its not very large, and a lot of toys are still scattered throughout the house, but this little room can easily be destroyed and cleaned up. In fact, I love having the playroom so much it is a good deterrent for having another baby! Then I would end up losing my playroom :)

Every day the girls empty out every bin, their toy chest, and scatter things throughout the room. But they have fun!

This is the morning after their birthday, and even though I picked up the room the night before, it did not take 5 minutes before the girls had organized the way they liked :)

Monday, October 6, 2008

Now that the girls party is over I now have a little time at night to post some pictures. For their party invitation I tried desperately to get a good picture of the girls wearing their AU outfits.

That night was right before I took Hannah to the doctor and found out she had an ear infection, and needless to say she was in a horrible mood and not cooperative. Leah was in her typical goofy mood.

I got them all dressed in their little dresses with bows in their hair and draped an AU blanket over our ottoman and got ready to snap a few pictures for their invitation.

To get Hannah to MAYBE smile we tried offering puffs, letting them play with a phone, or whatever else we could think of. It would have been more humorous to have video taped my sister and I dancing around and making faces just to get them to laugh, and the constant attempt to get them back onto the blanket after the countless times they crawled away.

I got a few good ones of them individually but did not do too well on the together shots. Anyway here are a few of the good, and some outtakes.

The girls had their 12 month check up (and shots) today and everything looks great. They are right on target as far as what they should be doing physically and cognitively. I asked about their wonderful chunkiness and he said he was not worried in the slightest, and they would run it all off soon enough. (So I know I have chubby babies, but its perfectly ok people!) :)

The doctor broke my heart today though. When he came in he said "I just cant believe they are already a year old!! They are no longer infants! They are now children" Yes, I know this is an obvious statement, but they are still my babies!!! I guess I now understand it when my mom always says we are still her babies, no matter how old we get :)

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Well the night ended with Auburn losing to Vanderbilt, but the birthday party was great despite such a tragedy.

There was a lot of preparation that went into this little party and there is no way I could have pulled it all together without the help of my parents and Matts parents. So a HUGE thank-you goes out to them!

We planned an Auburn birthday party for the girls. There was blue and orange everywhere. I made a tiger cake for the party and they had little pink and white smash cakes with a tiger paw on top. My mom provided all the appetizers and Matts mom brought all the stuff for burgers and sides! It was nice to just do decorations and the cleaning, which took all day Friday and up until the party started at 4:30 on Saturday.

We ended up with about 30 people here in our house plus 10 kids or so, and that was mainly family. I did not even invite my girlfriends for fear of overrunning the entire place. A few neighbors came but the rest were mostly relatives. It was a great time to visit with the family (even if I was mainly dealing with 2 babies the entire time) :) Everyone was so generous and the girls racked up! :)

They did very well too in the midst of all the chaos. Hannah has been rather needy lately, probably due to her cutting the 4 teeth, but even she was happy go lucky. They really enjoyed the bags, boxes and tissue paper that their gifts came in.

I was rather disappointed with their lack of enthusiasm over their cakes though. I think it was all the excitement, but they very daintily picked off the icing and just licked their fingers. Very little smashing, except for when I cheated at the end and put their hands in it. Hey I made the cakes to get messed up! I wasnt going to throw them away in tact!

I really enjoy the fact I have a playroom now. All the kids basically stayed in there and played (or destroyed). I did not think I had anything to entertain 2-7 year olds, but apparently they are easily amused. I took some pictures of the playroom when everyone had left but they do not do it justice. It was a wreck and was hilarious to see. I needed a panoramic view to capture it all.

They are still digging into all their new toys. Right now their favorite is their shopping cart/ walker. But they try to both push it from opposite ends which is not very productive.

They also got some tu-tu's made by their Aunt Katy. They wore them after they got their baths even though they had pajamas on. But they are just too darn cute. I think I will let them be ballerinas for Halloween since all I need is a onesie and some tights!

I tend to go a little overboard with the whole party planning thing but it was worth all the effort. I loved hosting this and all the work that went into it. Even though they will not remember it, it was a good celebration for Matt and I as well. I mean, we survived the first year with twins! We can do anything now!

outside all decorated (and Matt working of course)Leah having fun after opening some presents Is there anything better than boxes and cards?Apparently not...Good grief HannahMMMM, YUMMYLeah and her tutuSo much funThis was just one corner of the playroom... wow